Done challenge 9

[cipher-challenge.git] / 2021 / plaintext.9b.txt

report from mary everest boole to the curia of the trinity foundation this report was commissioned
by the curia to record the outcome of the commissioning and activities of the souter point facility
and to make recommendations on its development after years of pioneering work by faraday and others
the development of their extraordinary machines outgrew the capacity in our headquarters at trinity
wharf with each new increase in speed and power the risk of discovery grew until the curia had no
choice but to commission a new facility inspired by the lessons learned in london it was decided to
build a larger establishment undercover of the construction of the souter point lighthouse the first
dedicated electrically powered lamp of its kind the growth in mining in the area provided excellent
cover for the installation of our network of caverns underneath the lighthouse and the installation
and maintenance of the lighthouse lamps team engines pumps and generators disguised our own
activities as we equipped the base the holmes generators that we procured are identical to those
selected for the lighthouse so that spareparts can be procured easily without raising suspicion they
are driven by a pair of steam engines located deep in the rock of c lead on hill beneath the
lighthouse engine room much of the noise and heat they produce is muffled by the rocks and that
which escapes is mistaken by neighbours for the churning of the lighthouse machinery it seems that
no suspicions have been aroused among the locals who continue to believe that our activities are
somehow related to the lighthouse and the mines it is a wonder to behold the heavy machinery
converting the movement of the massive flywheel into the imperceptible motion of mysterious
electrical charges through the wires it is difficult to comprehend that the various parts of the
machine can combine to produce anything approaching human thought and yet it computes moreover this
computer embodies the vision of the countess of lovelace that of a machine which can go beyond mere
calculation to the analysis of the vast screeds of information that now cross the world by the
miracle of telegraph your staff at souter point have be enable to exploit the additional energy
provided by the new generators to double the computing power of the analytical engine and are now
able to process twice as many telegrams in the same time using the statistical techniques pioneered
by babbage and nightingale and aided by the power of the device the most securely enciphered
messages yield their secrets providing intelligence beyond anything that could be ascertained by
even the largest network of agents while this much is good and to be celebrated there is also bad
new siam disappointed to report that the additional volume of traffic on the telegraphy network and
the increased rate at which we have be enable to decipher those messages has stretched the ability
of our most powerful engine the foundation machine to support the analysts in their work as a result
we risk drowning in information we can not use we have reached the limits of what one machine can do
and if we are to make the most of this new bounty then we will need to link several in their
computations so that they can analyse and report what they find as fast as the messages flow this
will require an enormous increase in our production of electricity which can not be achieved by
combustion without a large increase in the consumption of fuel the cost would be prohibitive but
even if it could be met the corresponding increase in the production of heat and noise would be
unlikely to escape attention even on the wild northeast coast if we are to realise our full
ambitions we need to find a more remote location with a ready source of powered i sons work at
appleton shows great promise and i think i know the ideal location to build it mary everest boole